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[SOLVED] Firewall Expert Rules --> VPN setup

Trying to find some guidance in writing these rules. I think its possible that I might find
a way to treat certain IPs as Trusted dynamically. But maybe not. I need to know how
to write the rules to explore that possiblity.

Re: Firewall Expert Rules

Thanks for reply. Odd isn't it... ZA has been around for years and years and Expert Rules have been a part of it for most of that time but TECH has never bothered to write a HOW-TO about them.

My first question is "What is the supposed function of an Expert Rule"? Looking at the html
you referenced gives no hint about this. Perhaps if this "secret" got out I could figure out
how to write one <g>

Re: Firewall Expert Rules

With expert rules you can set general or per application firewall policies that you normally don't via the standard interface. For example, set a particular executable to connect only to a specific port, with a specific protocol or set an application to receive only certain inbound connections.

Never used myself although using ZA since almost its inception. I don't see the point. The time and efforts to setup expert rules is not proportional to the additional protection that they may provide.

For the rest, I am very sorry but I have no other documentation to provide you aside from the many posts by senior contributor OLDSOD and GURU Hoov guide.

Re: Firewall Expert Rules

Thanks. One of the points you mention gives me some hope that an expert rule just might help me get ZA to live in peace with my VPN proxy (which it now will not do -- forcing me to turn off ZA in favor of my proxy and use the less adequate MS firewall which does operate with the VPN proxy with no problem).
In particular, perhaps I'll be able to write an expert rule which will let the VPN executable operate without objection by ZA. Of course, to do this I'll have to figure all that out with no help at all from the ZA sellers (forgive me if I don't say I appreciate their help).

Re: Firewall Expert Rules

Originally Posted by karllhak

Thanks. One of the points you mention gives me some hope that an expert rule just might help me get ZA to live in peace with my VPN proxy (which it now will not do -- forcing me to turn off ZA in favor of my proxy and use the less adequate MS firewall which does operate with the VPN proxy with no problem).
In particular, perhaps I'll be able to write an expert rule which will let the VPN executable operate without objection by ZA. Of course, to do this I'll have to figure all that out with no help at all from the ZA sellers (forgive me if I don't say I appreciate their help).

No, this is not the main purpose of expert rules. For VPN issues read the many resolved cases here, the manual also as a chapter on VPN troubleshooting. Finally you have the ZA official support to troubleshoot the issue.

Re: Firewall Expert Rules

Thanks for your reply. As it happens another poster has cleared up my problem by mentioning ZoneAlarm's support of VPN in the Advanced settings. It turns out that because I was using PPTP ZA was choking but when I switched to VPN ZA calmed down the problem went away.

Re: Firewall Expert Rules

Originally Posted by karllhak

Thanks for your reply. As it happens another poster has cleared up my problem by mentioning ZoneAlarm's support of VPN in the Advanced settings. It turns out that because I was using PPTP ZA was choking but when I switched to VPN ZA calmed down the problem went away.